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User blog:Ace1580/Thoughts on Matthew 4:7-11
Finally we've come to the completion of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. This is, in my opinion the temptation that Satan really strikes with, and I believe that there's a reason that Matthew lists it last (though Luke uses a different order). There's a ton wrapped up in this temptation. Firstly, Satan implies that he has dominion over all of the kingdoms of the world (2 Cor 4:4, Luke 4:5 –7). Keep in mind that Satan is speaking to the Son of God here and he's not going to be pulling a fast one on him by offering him something he doesn't legitimately has reign over. Now I personally believe this changes a little bit at the death of Christ and Satan goes from having dominion over the Earth, to simply having influence over its inhabitance (Col 1:13')'. And this is, I believe, a big part of the temptation. But more on that in a second. On the surface, this looks like a simple temptation of Satan offering Christ power, but that's only the very surface of the temptation. There is a much deeper aspect to this. Eventually, Jesus would have all the kingdoms of the earth anyway (Rev 11:15). But it was a future reality, and a future reality that rested on the other side of his own death. What Satan is offering here is not just all the kingdoms of the earth, but the easy way of accomplishing the goal of his Father without having to go through suffering. This is the same Jesus that late on, in the garden of Gethsemane would pray that his Father take his cup from his hands, and this particular temptation should not be taken lightly. But ultimately, this would not be victory. Firstly, the ends never justify the means. We cannot claim to be accomplishing any sort of good if it requires sinning to accomplish. In this case, the opportunity to do good wasn't something that could only have been done by also doing something evil, and i find that usually to be the case. When we take shortcuts in order to accomplish something "good" it's not because accomplishing it without those shortcuts is impossible, it's just less suffering on our part. In this case we need to look to Jesus, who gave his life to accomplish what God called him to. Secondly, Jesus would have been undermining everything he was there to do in the first place. By worshiping Satan and receiving all the kingdoms of the earth, we would not have a perfect king, priest, sacrifice. He would be marred and not fit to reign. Everything he would have done after that point would have been corrupted and, like so many deals with the devil turn out to be, he would have been giving everything for nothing in the end. Make no mistake, the devil is not out to make deals that benefit us more than him. Jesus only now demands that Satan depart from him. We're not told why he waits this long to banish him, or even if he could have done so sooner. I'm of the opinion that there was no reason why Jesus couldn't have demanded Satan to leave his presence earlier, but chose to bear him in order to be tested fully, to experience the fullness of temptation just as we do, and to demonstrate his worthiness to be call the Son of God. That said, it's worth noting that sometimes, when we face temptations, they don't always go away at our first insistence of their departure. Sometimes, there's more testing that we have to go through. What matters more than whether Satan departs us immediately, is our response when he does not. If we are intent on not succumbing to his temptation, we need to be firmly grounded in the scripture, and persistent in our reliance on what we know to be true. Again, it's important to take note of the fact that Jesus doesn't just demand Satan leave, he backs it up with the Word of God. And not only does he leave, but angels attend to Christ after his departure. We do not have to weather the lies of Satan and the trials that come naturally as a part of this life alone, or without hope of comfort on the other side. Temptation is only for a time. Remember, in the end, God is in control here, not Satan. God only allows him to tempt us in order for us to grow. God knows our limits and he doesn't intend to push us through times like this without giving us a way to make it through and without having something to welcome us on the other side. Category:Blog posts